Slasher Smile: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"A smile that would frighten the blind."''|"Three Might Be Duende", [[They Might Be Giants (band)|They Might Be Giants]]}}

 

 

It's downright scary when the smile is in anticipation of pain or death - yours, probably. Needless to say, the '''Slasher Smile''' does not inspire warmth in anyone who sees it.

 

{{examples}}

* Harry from ''[[Outlaw Star]]'' gives a creepy one when Gene figures out he's been trying to [[Mind Rape]] Melfina and another when talking to Melfina about how they're [[Not So Different]].

* ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'': Birds. And Mukuro as well. Hooo Boooy...

* Michiko from ''[[Michiko to Hatchin]]'' sports one right before she breaks through a police roadblock.

* In ''[[Soul Eater]]'', Maka gets one of these when she {{spoiler|[http://randomc.maximum7.net/image/SOUL%20EATER/SOUL%20EATER%20-%2021%20-%20Large%2007.jpg goes completely nuts while fighting Chrona]}}.

** They seem to be the stock expression for mad characters; it's [https://web.archive.org/web/20161027062939/http://www.onemanga.com/Soul_Eater/69/01/ weird] to see ''Justin'' sporting one, especially with that visor obscuring his eyes.

** Even the Moon has a Slasher Smile in this series

* The first episode of ''[[Persona 4: The Animation]]'' has Yu with a (completely heroic and yet still disturbing) slasher smile on his face while summoning Izanagi for the first time.

 

* [[The Joker]] from ''[[Batman]]'' had this expression [[Frozen Face|glued on his face]]. His "Joker Venom" induces the expression in those exposed to it.

** The literary example, ''[[The Man Who Laughs]]'' by [[Victor Hugo]], which is commonly cited as inspiration for [[The Joker]], involves a man whose face is horribly mutilated so that he cannot stop smiling and how his psyche is twisted by this. In order to maintain the grin throughout the movie, actor [[Conrad Veidt]] had to get metal hooks in his mouth to pull back his cheeks. Nevertheless, the character is a really nice guy.

* Grimjack sports one whenever he is in a fight. The smile is a involuntary tick that he developed as a child gladiator where he was known as "The Grinner." Also, combat is the only time you ever see him smiling.

 

* ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]'': Oogie Boogie constantly and Jack has one as his default.

** How did you forget about [http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu159/Wibey/The%20Nightmare%20Before%20Christmas/Shock%20Lock%20Barrel/970406457a5625864977l.jpg Barrel?]

* In ''[[The Lorax (film)|The Lorax]]'', at the end of the [[Villain Song]], "How Bad Can I Be", the Once-ler has one after shouting the last lyrics, "HOW BAD CAN THIS POSSIBLY BE?!"

* ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'': When {{spoiler|Rourke}} has a pretty awesome and crazy slasher smile when he tries to kill Milo with a fire axe. You can clearly tell the guy has gone batshit insane.

* The "Here's Johnny!" scene from ''[[The Shining]]''.

* Alex from ''[[A Clockwork Orange (film)|A Clockwork Orange]]'', whenever he gets deep into the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v90KPJ6n4Ew&feature=related old ultraviolence. (forms at around 1:10)]

* Loki gets frighteningly good at these during ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]'' to reflect his more...[[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|unhinged]] mental state since ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]''.

 

* A few Death Eaters display this, as does Snape on occasion and Voldemort of course in the ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' series.

* [[Coraline (novel)|Coraline]]: Done by the Other Mother, when she's not busy being a [[Stepford Smiler]].

* In Robin Jarvis' ''The Deptford Mice: The Dark Portal,'' a rat called Smiler had a Slasher Smile on his face all the time...because he'd been rude to his superior as a child, and said superior had [[Family-Unfriendly Violence|cut off his lips]].

* Both Carcer and Mr. Teatime of Terry Pratchett's ''[[Discworld]]'' books are described as smiling like this ''all the time''. The drawing of Mr. Teatime in ''The Art of Discworld'' perfectly illustrates this. Marc Warren does a good job with this in the TV adaptation, too.

** Then there's [[Our Werewolves Are Different|Angua]], who at one point must have been smiling because "her mouth was open, and [[Oh Crap|all of her teeth were showing]]".

* A rare heroic version: [[The Big Guy|Ivarian Borenson]], of [[The Runelords]] fantasy novels, is known for his chilling laughter and grin as he fights, which makes him feared even amongst warriors who have far more endowments (strength, stamina, speed, and so on taken from other people) than him. Not so much out of a love for killing, but [[Genre Savvy|because it works far better at frightening other people than a war cry,]] so he got himself into the habit of laughing instead.

* In [[Devon Monk]]'s [[Allie Beckstrom]] novel ''Magic in the Blood'' the villain does this while making demands on Allie.

 

* Male [[Yandere]] Masato Kusaka from ''[[Kamen Rider Faiz]]'' does [[media:kusaka01 9124.jpg|this]] when he's [[media:kusakacreepysmile 4521.jpg|about to]] [[Murder the Hypotenuse]].

* ''[[Oz]]'': Displayed among the [[Complete Monster]] characters like Shillinger, Adebisi, the Aryans, Timmy Kirk, Claire Howell, etc. [[Manipulative Bastard]] Chris Keller and Ryan have done this too. Even Beecher, when he was crazy in Season 2.

* ''The Stand'': [http://parkinglotconfessional.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/creepy-randall-flagg.jpg Randall] [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_t8MirDiMGHI/SMCIE4KEy8I/AAAAAAAAATk/_Gzjy1AC0sY/s400/RandallFlagg.jpg Flagg]

 

* [[Michael Jackson]] turns to the camera with cat eyes and a creepy smile at the end of his Thriller music video.

* One of the detective's {{spoiler|other selves}} in the music video for [[Blind Guardian]]'s "Another Stranger Me." The band's singer also has a Slasher Smile at one point.

Until I lose myself }}

 

 

* [[Randy Orton]] doesn't smile often, butwhen he does....

* [[Batista]] could be like this as well, both as a face and as a heel.

* [[Chris Benoit]]. Especially unnerving, considering what happened to him.

 

 

* Umbridge in ''[[A Very Potter Musical|A Very Potter Sequel]]'' pretty much perfects this trope. The two most notable times being when she's accusing Cho of being perfect and after she fires Lupin and Harry tells her to "do your worst".

* Red Caboose from ''[[Starlight Express]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20121007090735/http://bellesdomain.co.uk/stex/brochures/us03_40.jpg And] [https://web.archive.org/web/20121007090755/http://bellesdomain.co.uk/stex/brochures/j90_28.jpg how] [https://web.archive.org/web/20121007090745/http://bellesdomain.co.uk/stex/brochures/b97_22.jpg very].

 

* The Piraka of ''[[Bionicle]]'' all have giant Slasher Smiles plastered on their faces.

** The story points out that their frowns are ''worse''.

 

* Hihidaruma/Darmanitan from ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]''. Just think about what is going through its mind.

** [[Action Bomb|Electrode]] along with Gengar and its relatives, Haunter and Gastly, too. [[Everything's Better with Monkeys|Aipom]] has one that manages to be kind of cute.

* In ''[[Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg]]'', any crow enemy will always have a ''massive'' Slasher Smile on its mug.

 

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' has the Jägermonsters (clawed, fanged, monstrous [[Super Soldier|super soldiers]]) - and most of them are on the ''good guys''' side.

** Our heroine, while not a violent person, is also prone to sporting a scary grin when she's in [[The Madness Place|in the throes of a bout of mad SCIENCE!]] And when she does, the ''Jägermonsters'' stay the hell out of her way...

{{quote|'''Ebby''': I've seen Schlock made [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2010-10-23 that smile] before, sir. It's creepier on you. }}

 

* Tez On Toast from ''[[Kate Modern]]'', for whom this expression may as well be a smile of recognition. Truly chilling.

* The Tails Doll Short, which can be found [http://comickpro.deviantart.com/art/Tails-Doll-79228090?offset=50#comments here]. You will never, EVER look at [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Tails]] the same way again.

* [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dr-nagyfi-rich%C3%A1rd Dr. Nagyfi Richárd]{{Dead link}} often sports a version of this.

 

* The twin kittens in ''Best Ed'' give these all the time, the only time they DROP their smile is at Buddy the Squirrel, who gives an [[Oh Crap]] moment whenever they do.

* {{spoiler|William Dunbar}}, of all people in '' [[Code Lyoko]]'' displays this while in Lyoko while {{spoiler|possessed by XANA after the ending of the third season.}} This is helped by the fact that he is given a [[BFS]] to use as weapon while backed up by Monsters.

* Try to name someone in [[The Venture Brothers]] who '''hasn't''' done one yet.

 

* Many of the images on Encyclopedia Dramatica's [https://web.archive.org/web/20170525133758/https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/DO_IT_FAGGOT "DO IT FAGGOT"] page can either be examples of Slasher Smiles or [[Cheshire Cat Grin]]s.

* In [[Norse Mythology]], Loki was often depicted with one of these (in some versions, due to a bet gone wrong Loki often had ''scars'' on his entire lip as well.

* [http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/60436 Smile.dog's] nightmarish grin is like this.

** That last image may be [[Nightmare Retardant]]. It's an edited photo of the cockmongler.

*** It's only [[Nightmare Retardant]] if you actually knew who the cockmongler was before hand. Otherwise?

* Play the [[Luna Game]], [http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/005/722/TheLuna.png Never sleep again.]

 

* Actor [[Jack Black]] can be seen doing this trope in a wide number of photos.

* The "literally smiling from ear to ear" disfigurement smile as evidenced by characters such as Kakihara in Ichi the Killer, Gwynplaine (of the aforementioned The Man Who Laughs), and ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'''s Joker is commonly referred to as a [[wikipedia:Glasgow smile|"Glasgow]] [[Glasgow Grin|smile]]" and is not a terribly uncommon humiliation injury by gangs. The actor Tommy Flanaghan sports one of these courtesy of being jumped outside a pub in his younger days.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Madness Tropes]]

[[Category:Obviously Evil]]

[[Category:Smile Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Print]]

[[Category:Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]